Text: In the synagogue, this passage is read as the Haftarah on the last day of Passover.
📅 Next Reading: April 6, 2026 (Diaspora) / April 5, 2026 (Israel).
But the spiritual preparation begins now, in the month of Shevat (January/February). It’s the season of the "Shoot from the stump of Jesse"—the awakening of new life from old roots.
#Passover #Shevat #JewishCalendar #Haftarah
https://youtu.be/ALx_ocpRAAc?si=ikKF2EjsEBjHVInZ
"The #winter moon has always struck me as having a #fairytale sort of beauty. In these days of #midwinter, for those of us in the #Northeast, the brightness of the #moon is even starker and more visible without the leaves on the tree branches. In this season of the #Jewishcalendar, post-#Hanukkah and pre-#TuBishvat, the long post-#solstice nights seem to invite dreaming and stories.
What #stories does #Jewish tradition tell about the moon?
In the #Talmud (Chullin 60b), there’s a tale about the moon and the #sun. The #story goes like this: Once, at the dawn of creation, the moon and the sun were equally bright. (It’s fun to try to imagine what that might have looked like.) The moon wasn’t happy about this sameness and complained to the Holy One, saying, “Is it possible for two kings to wear a single crown?” The moon seemed to imply that she should be made bigger.
The Holy One responded to this request by making the moon smaller..."
This this this.
"#Hanukkah commonly evokes light, family gatherings, and childhood memory. But these associations sit atop a much deeper and more challenging history.
Hanukkah marks the only successful #Jewish revolt in recorded antiquity against cultural erasure.
Not against slavery. Not against imperial taxation. Not against foreign rule as such.
Against forced #assimilation.
The Seleucid decrees were not primarily economic or political. They were civilizational. They targeted the infrastructure of Jewish continuity itself: #Torah law and study, #Hebrew language, #Shabbat, #circumcision, and the #Jewishcalendar. #Torahscrolls were destroyed, and those who taught or possessed them were executed. In effect, the decrees aimed to dismantle Jewish memory.
Most ancient peoples who faced comparable pressures disappeared."
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/hanukkah-and-the-jewish-refusal-to-disappear/
(Also, Jewish years aren't allowed to start on Sunday, because if it did, then Hashana Rabah would fall on the Sabbath, and Sabbath restrictions would prevent the ritual beating on willow branches on the ground.
Jewish years also can't start on Wednesday or Friday, because then Yom Kippur would fall on Friday or Sunday; full Sabbath restrictions apply on Yom Kippur, and two consecutive days of Sabbath restrictions is considered to be a bit much).
6/7
Contact Moshe at IL Photonics (moshe@ilphotonics.com) for your free Yad Sarah #JewishCalendar for 2024–2025 (5785). Please provide us your mailing address.
Today is #WorldCatDay, so a reminder that one of our most popular products, the yearly JEWISH CAT CALENDAR, is now available for preorders for the upcoming new Jewish year -
(US Amazon associate link)
Illustration from a previous Jewish Cat Calendar.
#cats #JewishCalendar #Luach #JewishCats #Mazeldon #Shabbat #Pride #Queer
PSA about Yom HaShoah, April 17-18.
(Sharing because I didn't know eiter)
#JewishCalendar#HolocaustRemembranceDay
Somebody was talking to me about the #MuslimCalendar, and it occurred to me that knowing the #JewishCalendar means I can calculate how the former cycles through the year.
The lunisolar Jewish Calendar has 7 leap months every 19 years, or 7 extra months every 235 months. It thus falls behind the pure-lunar Muslim Calendar at a unitless rate of 7/235 (on average). Thus, it takes 235/7 ≈ 33.6 years for the Muslim holidays to cycle through the solar year.
